Dusk was falling fast on the high security prison, filling Ray's cell with an eerie dusty light. Anticipating his last meal, Ray knew he had chosen well, T-bone steak, baked potato; corn, a whole wheat bun and apple pie ala-mode.
Later, the guards came and led him down the long hall to the electricity room, where they put him in a chair and tied a black hood over his head.
After making sure he was secure, the old guard yelled, “Ready! Set! Power the juice!”
Ppppzzzzzzzzzttt
(Ray wasn't dead).
Ppppzzzzzzzzttt
(Still wasn't dead).
“Oh hell! Get em' up. He lives.”
- ~100 words~
copyright: Ted Strutz
It is time once again for Friday Fictioneers, which is graciously hosted by Rochelle Wisoff-Fields. Our challenge is to write a story, using the photo prompt given, with a beginning, middle, and end, in 100 words or less. It's fun. Join us.
If you are interested in participating, click:
Rochelle Wisoff-Fields – Addicted to Purple
BEAUTIFUL WORDS 
he was indeed lucky. i wonder what would be on the last meal’s menu next time.
As I understand it, if they survive the electric chair their death sentence is change into life.
so back to regular prison meal then.
Yeah, poor guy. More bologna sandwiches with dry moldy bread. :D:D
PJ,
I guess it wasn’t his last meal after all. I’d say that their AA batteries are running low or his is one tough guy. 🙂 I like the ending.
-David
Thank you David. I understand that if they survive the electric chair, they are no longer on death row but in for life. Hell, they might even let him go free. I’m thinking he may have been falsely accused and judged for something he didn’t do.
I’m sure it’s such a miracle if they survive, it would be cruel to put them through it again.
I agree! That would be cruel.
Oh, and in a way he was put through it again because they jolted him twice with the electricity. So, it could be this man is not guilty. 🙂 🙂
Good story PJ, nice ending.
Thank you Michelle! I thought I would do a story with a happy ending for a change. 🙂
The beginning was so intense and the end gave him such freedom. Great job! 🙂
Thank you! It was fun to write except for the electric shock part. LOL!
Dear Joy? I love your story and I think you are right. I’ve heard that before that if they survive the electric chair, that their sentence is commuted to life in prison – which I think is probably a wise move. Your story was so good! Thanks! Nan 🙂
Thank you Nan! It”s funny when I’m writing flash fiction I can think of a lot of cool endings but it would take more than 100 words…you know what I mean.
It was a little bit scary!
Nice ending:)
Thank you! I’m glad he didn’t die either because something tells me he might be an innocent man.
That’s not a chair I would like to be sitting in – not even for the t-bone steak. (He was probably innocent, anyhow – the mayor nobbled the jury chairman who was related to the victims’ second cousin by marriage.)
I agree with you and think he was innocent. Now he has to go through another trial but he gets proven NOT guilty and is set free. The mayor’s cousin is on the run because he is afraid now…. lol…. poetic justice!!
Great job on an intense subject!!
Thank you JR! He didn’t die because he was innocent and is given a new trial where he was proven INNOCENT and set free to live a happy life. (I believe in poetic justice :D)
Interesting and creative Idea!
You did well PJ!
Hi Jeff, always nice to see your smiling face. I looked up what you said you had been doing and found it very interesting! Hope that is going well for you. 🙂 Thank you for liking my story. I believe he is innocent and will be set free. (I believe in poetic justice). 😀
Thank you again!! 🙂 (hugs!)
Wow! The noise alone would give you a heart attack! And the waiting. Good story.
Thank you! And the poor guy got zapped twice! He must be innocent! 🙂
I think it was the electro-magnetic field that still surrounded the T-bone, short-circuiting the electricity. I would probably not have survived – I’m a vegetarian. 🙂
LOL! You are probably right! It was definitely the T-Bone! I just read your story and I’m thinking it was a sniper. Am I right?
Well, sniper’s a noun made up from the verb to snipe, isn’t it.
Oh okay, its about snipers. Blood thirsty snipers.
Groan. Have you read Wm Carlos Wms ‘The Red Wheelbarrow’?
No, I haven’t.
PJ, is this real? But Thank. God he survives, yay, for happy endings 🙂 . I didn’t know they were given life sentences if they Survived electrocutions.
No, it is fiction. But that is what I have heard. If they aren’t killed by the electric chair or whatever, they don’t have to go through it again. I didn’t look up to see if that is accurate. I think my protagonist is not guilty. But I believe in poetic justice. 🙂
Oh my goodness! At least he got a good meal out of it 😦
I didn’t know that about surviving the electric chair. Do they still use the electric chair? 😦
Ellespeth
Yes! He had selected well! Haha!
Thank you for reading Ellespeth. No, I don’t think they use the electric chair anymore. I had always heard that if a prisoner survives the electric charge (or even the lethal injection now) they are taken off of death row so not to have to go through that again. I didn’t look it up to verify, but it makes sense to me.
>
Aw, they could’ve given it one more go, third time lucky 🙂
What!? You sadist! (lol) He is innocent, that’s why it isn’t working. It’s called poetic justice. But you might want to call some of the prisons in your country, they are always looking for people like you. (hahaha)
I expect it made his hair curl though… Interesting one
Thank you Sandra. I would imagine so. I think he might be an innocent man and this is poetic justice. 🙂 Thank you for reading!
Wonder what he does with the unexpected bonus of his life?
That’s a very good question!
This is so chilling for me.. the fact that it doesn’t work is almost more chilling than that it doesn’t – apparently Ethel Rosenberg got 5 shocks before she died.. so I guess going free does not cover espionage …
OMG! They shocked her 5 times?! That is horrible! I may be wrong about the “letting them go” if the electric chair (or needle) doesn’t kill them. It is just something I heard (more than once). I should have looked it up before I wrote about it. I will remember to do so next time.
I just read about it the other day.. and apparently she was probably framed.. and the wife of a spy.
Really? She might have been innocent. Maybe that is why it took so many tries, someone was trying to tell them something. And..maybe it is because of her execution that they decided on not putting more people through that. When I wrote my little story, I was thinking more on the line of ‘Poetic Justice.’
Check this out:
http://inventors.about.com/od/hstartinventions/a/Electric_Chair.htm
This is a very interesting take on the prompt.
Apparently the first execution by electric chair lasted for 8 minutes! George Westinghouse said it was worse than hanging, and a reporter claimed that he would have been better off with an axe.
Apologies, the reporter said that it was worse than hanging, and Westinghouse said he would have been better off with an axe. My mistake!
Thanks! It still is absolutely horrible to even think about.
Seriously? How horrible!! That is barbarian!
It is terrifying! It was also developed by employees of Thomas Edison too. But instead of a Direct Current they used an Alternating Current to try and prove that it was dangerous! If you’re interested, here’s a link to a page all about it:
http://inventors.about.com/od/hstartinventions/a/Electric_Chair.htm
Although some parts are not very nice!
Absolutely I would love to read about it (I think).
I read it and it is outrageous what they did to animals. Back then animals meant nothing to humans except food.
Today though, what with animal testing, the same could still be said. To think though that the electric chair was created from a need to be the big shot!
Crazy Edison and Westinghouse. Animals aren’t used as much as they use to be because of animal activities. Thank God for them!
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I like the way you ended this, “He lives,” like he’s a Frankenstein or something. And now he’ll go back to bad food, but he lives! Great story, PJ.
I think we can make our own endings after this. For me, it is poetic justice. He is freed from prison because he was innocent for whatever he was in prison for. 😀
Lucky man. Glad he survived although I bet it hurt a bit in the process.
Yes, I believe you are right! He was probably a little bit cooked, after 2 surges of electricity.
No one told the warden that, as in baseball, it take three strikes and then you’re out.
In some states, well I won’t go there…
Randy
One,two,three strikes and he’s in, not out. Nice ending!
Thank you!!
We both had the chair in our heads! You have some powerful words here. Great job and no worries about your writing abilities as I can see. 🙂
Lily
Thank you. 🙂
Lucky guy. 🙂
Yea, he is since it didn’t fry him to death. 🙂 Thanks for reading!
A faulty electric chair, damn, that’s rough.
No kidding! I wouldn’t want to experience one.
Me neither!
The Monet painting, is it in your home or at a Gallery?
No, I wish! lol It’s at the National Gallery of Art.
I imagine all that beautiful art was really something to see!
Oh I had a wonderful time. I can;t wait to go back (but first I am getting better walking shoes!)
Definately! Good walking shoes is a must!
Dear Joy,
Perhaps this is the reason they went to lethal injection. 😉 Although his “last’ meal sounds kind of lethal. On a grammatical note, I think your semi-colons should be commas.
At least he got to have a tasty meal before going back to cardboard prison food. Cute story.
Shalom,
Rochelle
Thank you Rochelle, and also for the punctuation tip. 🙂 (I was hoping to convey Poetic Justice).
I’m glad he’s going to live too, especially if he’s innocent, as you say. I like the ending very much.
Thank you Margaret! I was glad he lived too because I decided since the electrocution didn’t kill him he was innocent. Poetic justice. 🙂
There’s a real strong smack of realism in your story because, at least from what I’ve read, not everyone who sits in the electric chair dies the first time. Also, the final meal was interesting and another nice touch of realism. There was a website I found years ago that listed the last meals of condemned inmates and it was really interesting at first but quickly became very sad.
Yes, I have heard that about the electric chair. Like you, I would find the last meals for inmates to be both very interesting and very sad.
The electric chair is awful. I’m glad it didn’t work! I don’t know what Ray did to deserve it, but I’m still glad he lived.
If I had more words I would have told that Ray was innocent and that the faulty chair was poetic justice. lol
That would have been good…so many times I find myself wanting to write so much for these prompts! But the readers, I suppose can imagine their own ending or “what happens next.”
Yes, me too. There is only so much you can say with 100 words or 150 words, depending on the challenge. But they sure are fun to write!
Nicely done Joy, reading through the earlier comments, it appears to have been poetic justice.
Thank you Dee. 🙂
I’ve never heard the Death Chamber called The Electricity Room… but I guess that’s what it was.
Did I call it the Electricity Room? That is my mistake. It should have been “the electric chair.” He was eating his last meal in his cell.
You did, and I actually think it works better. ‘where they put him in a chair’… loved it.
Thank you Ted.
Scary, but good story, Joy. I’d say life imprisonment would be merciful, but from what I’ve read, I’m not sure. I don’t believe in the death penalty. Too many mistakes have been made. Well done. — Suzanne
Thank you for reading Suzanne!
What a hard-hitting story and very well written, PJ. The description of his last meal was an excellent touch. That the man should survive two bolts in that dreaded chair is quite something! I suppose we could read all sorts into that – religious or otherwise. Well done!
Thank you for reading and commenting. 🙂 I doubt anyone would really survive two bolts of electricity in an electric chair but I wanted to convey “poetic justice”. Heck, the guy was innocent – can’t let him die in the electric chair! lol (Although I am sure there are some that have died that are innocent). Thank you.
I love the idea that he didn’t die – for whatever reason – Divine Intervention or otherwise. Like you, I’m sure some innocent people have been executed in the past. Anyway, I liked your idea of ‘poetic justice’! 🙂
Thank you Millie. 🙂
Bet he won’t play with anymore outlets! LOL, Loved this story. Dark and redemptive, my kind of story.
Thank you. Mine too. Love poetic justice!